Brother can you spare a job?
Posted By Kathleen David on March 15, 2004
have been unemployed for almost a year now after being downsized. I have picked up enough freelance work to cover what I need. I have been looking for another position in my field(s) and picked up a few temporary gigs, but nothing long term. The advantage has been that I have been able to spend a lot of time with Caroline when she is changing the fastest (She said DaDa to her Daddy this evening for the first time). I don
I, for one, still want to know where my Constitutional Amemdment that bans sending American jobs to other countries for cheap (sometimes slave) labor is.
I feel for anyone who has been downsized. It’s kinda sad that we use a word that sounds like it should apply to a variety of Happy Meal(tm) to describe the plight of the American working class.
I still believe that this practice, outsourcing, borders on treason because it is in direct conflict with the interests of ‘We The People.’
Kathleen, if I were in a position to point you in the direction of a job in your chosen field(s) I would do so in a second. Come to think of it… I think Saturday Night Live(tm) needs someone to edit their sketches before production to prevent their continuing mission to explore stupid joke ideas, to seek out lame writers and talent-blind directors… To boldly go where no lowest-common-denominator has gone before. Sure I’m being a bit fecitious, but it may be worth looking into. They REALLY need the help.
On a side-note that sort of applies to our loss of jobs, Why do we treat the ecconomy like a force of nature? I mean WE MADE IT UP!! The notion of ecconomy is a human construct and so many people behave as though it’s immutable. I can think of only two reasons for not changing our ecconomic process to a system that is fair for everyone. Power and Greed.
Salutations,
Mitch
Right on, Mitch.
I think outsourcing should be, if not illegal, extremely penalized. I had heard a small soundbite about some guy (either a higher up tech type or someone in the government, I can’t remember right now) saying that outsourcing is a good idea, and something about the jobs being outsourced were jobs that Americans didn’t want anyway. Yeah, the senior level programmers I know (through my tech-field wife) reeeeeaaallly didn’t want the steady job and benefits all that much.
On another personal note, my wife ended up getting laid off last year at the end of April when she was about 5 months pregnant. That sucked. She obviously wasn’t going to be able to go interviewing for quite a while, not that she was able to find much in her field cuz the market sucked. We’re lucky we had just gotten married and received some generous monetary gifts, otherwise we wouldn’t have lasted until she got her current job. I’m pretty useless, as I’m an unpaid, trained artist/illustrator trying to get a career going, and at the time I was working part time for UPS (the early morning shift). Fortunately, everything seems to have worked out for now.
Sorry for babbling, Mrs. D.
Monkeys
Hi Kathleen,
I don’t know if this will help, because it is kind of a tangential opportunity, but a friend of mine is desperate to find Admins/Expediters for his election business (private associations, unions, etc.) in Garden City. He’s looking for print and mail background, and he’s willing to train for the rest.
From what I remember, the pay is decent.
If you’re interested, please feel free to e-mail me and I will forward you his contact info.
It is a really bad market out there – I’ve gone from Graphic Design, to Administration and back into design just to make ends mee.
I wish you the best of luck, and hope something breaks for you soon.
Here’s my sad story, which most would feel isn’t sad at all.
I work for Union Pacific Technologies in St. Louis. I’ve been here 22 years. When I started back in 1982 at Missouri Pacific, I was greeted with “Welcome to MoPac, by the way we’ve just been bought by the UP so we’ll probably be moving to Omaha any time now.”
Well, in all this time it’s never come to pass. UP has constructed a new world headquarters in Omaha, a nice big one, but even in December our VP told us “there are no plans to move UPT to Omaha.”
On January 15 they told us that UPT would be in Omaha by June.
Due to financial considerations and available child care (in-laws), it’s not feasible for me to move the whole family to Omaha. I’ve been trying to find a job here, but employers turn sheet white when I tell them how much I make here. There’s the question of benefits and vacation time. There’s the matter of every job I’ve applied for also has about 100-200 other resumes in addition to mine.
So odds are I’m going to have to get an apartment up there for a year or two until the economy improves or the family situation changes in our favor.
There is some humor to the situation. In order to get the precious tax credits for their new building, Nebraska insisted that there be new jobs available. And that they be kept there for 10 years. No outsourcing to other countries. No downsizing. And for any one person who leaves, UP has to hire 2 people to replace that body.
Kind of sweet to see their greed nail ’em right in the ‘nads.
JSM
“I, for one, still want to know where my Constitutional Amemdment that bans sending American jobs to other countries for cheap (sometimes slave) labor is.”
Vote John Kerry.
“I still believe that this practice, outsourcing, borders on treason because it is in direct conflict with the interests of ‘We The People.'”
Yeah! How dare a privately owned company try and save money. Don’t they know the only reason that companies even exist is to give people jobs, health and retirement benefits in this country? Even if it means they have to go broke doing ti.
Communism Rocks, baby!
I sympathize Kath. really. Lost my jobh early on, but found another in another field. Sure it’s not what I want to do, but it pays the bills until what I want to do comes along.
Question: If you’ve been doing enough freelance work to cover what you need, have you considered making it your full time business? Maybe even opening up your own literary agency and representing new writers? I might need one soon, although, I admit, I’m leaning more towards screenwriting than novels at the moment.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Clark…
By the way, is it ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’? I’ve been wondering for some time but your ‘signature’ is not really indicative of which it might be.
In any case, communism would not be my goal. I can see where I wasn’t explicit and how the conclusion of communism might seem to fit. What I am suggesting is that when corporate greed has become such a powerful motivator that proffits fall to a point that makes it seem ok to eliminate their domestic workforce, thus diminishing their consumer base, to further line their pockets for the short term, then there is something wrong with the leadership of that company. The same leadership, I might add, that, prior to ‘outsourcing’, openly chooses quantity over quality, a practice which has already reduced their consumer base.
In short (too late), what I’m saying is that a low quality product reduced the consumer base and corporate officers got a raise. Then the transfer of jobs out of the country (to reduce costs, they claim) further diminishes the consumer base since now there are so many fewer people to purchase the product.
I work in the automotive industy and have seen this pattern quite often. I even saw it years ago when I was just slinging pizza for a living.
Something else that just occured to me. Gambling has been called a disease. Do you suppose that uncontroled greed would fall into that category? Could that level of greed be considered as a kind of behavioral disorder?
Salutations,
Mitch
Two things I forgot to mention Mr.(?) Clark:
1. If you ask me, that’s a dámņ good idea you had for Kathleen.
2. Ðámņ, I’m long winded.
Salutations again,
Mitch
“By the way, is it ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’? I’ve been wondering for some time but your ‘signature’ is not really indicative of which it might be. ”
Why do you have to try and label me?
“What I am suggesting is that when corporate greed has become such a powerful motivator that proffits fall to a point that makes it seem ok to eliminate their domestic workforce, thus diminishing their consumer base, to further line their pockets for the short term, then there is something wrong with the leadership of that company.”
At that point let the marketplace decide. That’s why monopoly’s are a bad thing. Look, companies exist to make a profit for it’s owners, not to create jobs and benefits. In fact, in order for any company to create more jobs it HAS to be profitable first.
Am I for outsourcing? Not particularly. But even that has benefits, not only for the company but eventually for the global economy. When the citizens of poor countries start making money, they want to buy goods and services as well. The market increases and companies grow which in turn creates more jobs.
So yes, some peoeple may suffer in the short term, but in the long term everyone benefits.
“Gambling has been called a disease. Do you suppose that uncontroled greed would fall into that category?”
I don’t think gambling is a “disease”. That’s a psychiatric trick. Calling it a ‘disease” relieves the “victim” of any responsibilty for their actions and makes them feel better ab out themselves.
“1. If you ask me, that’s a dámņ good idea you had for Kathleen.”
Thank you.
“If you ask me, that’s a dámņ good idea you had for Kathleen.”
I was going to suggest that Kath create a website as well giving advice and resources to writers who want to break into the business. Only one problem with that. Hollylisle.com has a writers community called Forward Motion that is the bomb for new writers and it’s free. It’s a great source of information. On the other hand, if I were Kath O’David, I haul myself over there right away. If she ‘s looking for new writers to represent, or perhaps she’s editing manuscripts, that seems to be an ideal place to go for new clients. I’d suggest a well placed article from an INSIDER’S POV that tells what kind of query letter or manuscript catches an editor’s eye. It’s free publicity and it gets her name out there as an agent.
Just a thought.
(BTW Kath, if you DO decide to open a literary agency, where do I send my query letter?)
8^)
To Commodore Clark (because ‘Commodore’ is gender-neutral),
I think you know I’m not interested in applying a label to you. My interest is in polite discourse with one who can challenge my POV and get me to think. I was seeking to avoid being offensive.
“1. If you ask me, that’s a dámņ good idea you had for Kathleen.”
“Thank you.”
You’re welcome.
Salutations,
Mitch
Does Kodansha still have a New York office? My contact was Kobayashi-san.
Investigate that.
I didn’t know you were “downsized” – sigh.